The Nature of Mankind – Andrea Costantini

She can be Mother or stepmother, uncontaminated or sick but mankind is always obliged to establish a relationship with Mother Nature. Too often, however, he forgets to be a guest or his roommate at most, and he become a parasite and a tyrant kamikaze.

The project “SYMBIOSIS” wants to give voice to an overwhelming need for mankind to reconcile himself with the Universe.

Protagonists of this series are moderns fauns: common people, stripped of their clothes, which through a docile and meek surrender to their origins, are back to being one with Mother Nature, which at the end we can command only by following her rules.

Andrea Costantini Biography

My name is Andrea Costantini. I was born in 1977 in Pescara (Italy).

I’m always been curious about photography and when the Art school introduced me to the darkroom I was literally fascinated. Since I was a child there was a camera around me. My father was a big Nikon fan and he had a huge lens collection. He spent hours taking pictures of my brother and me in our childhood. So I grew up with photography and a curiosity for the pictures. All forms of art inspire me, but one of my greatest influences from early in my career is Surrealism. Another source of inspiration for me is the majesty of some architectures: I’m fascinated by what the man has managed to build around him over the centuries. I take pictures of faces and I modify them by adding images, like in a montage. I love playing with lights and shadows, tones and textures.My imaginary worlds are a mix of architectures, objects and animals. I use the most advanced technologies to express myself, but papers and pencils accompany the birth of my projects: sketches and notes turn into thoughts and images. Is the power to escapes the constraints of social and economic differences and the limits of space and time.

I sleep with my Moleskine and a pencil because most of my ideas come to me at night. I wake up and I write down what I have imagined or dreamed, to be sure to remember everything next morning.